Verstappen edges upgraded Ferraris in sole Austria practice
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The reigning world champion left it late to top the timesheets as he posted a 1m05.742s in his dominant Red Bull RB19. F1 2023 Austrian Grand Prix – Friday Practice ResultsWill McLaren’s HUGE upgrades turn their F1 season around?Video of Will McLaren's HUGE upgrades turn their F1 season around?Verstappen clocked his best lap on medium tyres but was still 0.241s ahead of Carlos Sainz, and 0.270s clear of Charles Leclerc, both of whom were running the faster soft tyres on their upgraded Ferraris. Lewis Hamilton spent much of the session at the top of the order having set the early benchmark on hard tyres, but the Mercedes driver ended up half a second behind Verstappen during the qualifying simulation runs. Sergio Perez, who skipped Thursday’s media day after becoming unwell, was well enough to drive as he finished fifth, 0.520s off his Red Bull teammate on the same compound.
Sixth place went the way of Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll, who pipped Haas’ Kevin Magnussen and teammate Fernando Alonso. George Russell struggled to match the pace of his Mercedes teammate as he took ninth, ahead of Zhou Guanyu, who rounded out the top-10 for Alfa Romeo. Lando Norris failed to get a soft tyre run in at the end of the session as he finished slowest of all in 20th, despite running McLaren’s heavily-upgraded MCL60. Qualifying for Sunday’s grand prix is up next and takes place at 4pm UK time. Related F1 sprint race: What are the rules? What is the new 2023 format? Hamilton demands F1 rule-change | Verstappen: “Life is unfair, deal with it”
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